That's Why You Don't Drive
by DarkElements10
Summary: Why is Detective Lindsay so against Detective Halstead driving? [ONE SHOT]


**That's Why You Don't Drive**

**By: Rhuben**

**Summary-Why is Detective Lindsay so against Detective Halstead driving?**

* * *

"_Alright, let's move out._"

Detective Jay Halstead reached for his coat, sliding his arms through the silky smooth material before opening a desk drawer to grab a beanie to prepare himself for the bitter Chicago cold. Just like he did every day, he followed his partner, Detective Erin Lindsay out of the Intelligence Unit offices, into the holding bay for their cars and instantly made his way over to the passenger side.

He had tried once to talk his way into driving, but Erin had quickly shot him down. Not that he was _too _surprised. She liked things to go her way and she pointed that out to him the day he was assigned to as her partner.

It had taken a while for his shoulder to heal, a lot longer than he had wanted it too, but he pushed himself through work outs and physical therapy to be sure that he didn't have a risk of losing _any _mobility in his shoulder. But he was confident and looking forward to his first day as he strolled up to the front desk.

"Good morning, Sergeant Platt," he greeted the older woman with a smile, quickly scribbling his name as he signed in. The gray haired woman hiked an eyebrow and narrowed her eyes as she slowly turned away from her computer to peer over at him.

"Oh, yeah?" she asked, slowly looking him up and down. Jay shifted his weight from foot to foot as he stared back at her. "What's so good about it?"

"Uhh." Jay stalled, staring blankly at her. As the silence wore on, he lifted his hand and massaged his shoulder, feeling the raised scar of where the bullet had pierced him.

Sgt. Platt's eyebrow twitched before she made a popping sound with her lips. "Right," she replied, sniffing. "Well, when you figure out _why _this morning is so good for you, _please_, come back and let me know." She gave a brief shake of her head, shifting her eyes towards the ceiling before turning back towards the computer.

Her sarcasm was not lost on him, but slammed into him like a freight train. That wasn't anything new to him either, but no one could ever really prepare themselves for whatever it was that she was going to say to you.

Sgt. Platt looked back over at him and blinked in surprise when she found Jay still standing there. Her eyes shifted around him before, her eyebrows shot up, silently asking him why he was there. "Do you need something?" she asked.

"He's waiting for me."

Jay let out a sigh of relief as Antonio's words reached his ears. Sgt. Platt instantly took on a new demeanor, putting a bright look on her face. "Detective Dawson, Detective Lindsay," she said, a certain light coming to her eyes. "Wonderful day isn't it? Not too cold out."

"Great day," Detective Antonio Dawson replied before shifting his eyes over to Jay. He removed his hands from his pockets, pointing towards the woman standing next to him. "This is your partner, Detective Erin Lindsay."

"Nice to meet you," Jay said, offering his hand towards her. And it was nice. She was beautiful, but he could tell she had a tough side to her as she lifted her chin in a quick nod, sliding her hand into his. But, what captured him was her voice.

"Likewise," she replied in the huskiest voice he had heard for a girl. "Welcome to Intelligence."

"I'm gonna give you two some time to get to know each other before you start," Antonio said, looking back and forth between Jay and Erin.

Erin slid her hands into the back pockets of her jeans, giving him a nod of understanding, before shifting her eyes back towards Jay, slowly hiking an eyebrow. He clapped Jay on the shoulder, gently shaking him.

"Glad to see you here, man. Shoulder doing well?" He then quickly removed his hand, laughing a little bit. "Probably not so well now, huh?"

"Nah, its cool, man," Jay replied with a smile. He rolled his shoulder to prove his point. "Hey, Antonio, I can't thank you enough for giving me this opportunity."

"Hey, don't thank me yet," Antonio replied, pointing a warning finger in Jay's face. "You don't have the job, yet. Voight is out on a call, but he specifically wants the two of you to go through training together to see how you vibe as partners. He'll be getting results back from your training today."

"No pressure," Jay said more to himself.

"I'll catch you two, later," Antonio said, holding his fist out towards Jay, who bumped it with his own. He then turned towards Erin who did the same. "Don't be hard on him."

"Would I do that?" Erin asked, widening her eyes, her red lips stretching into a smirk.

Antonio briefly shook his head, a smile of amusement stretching across his face before he headed up the wooden stairs towards the back of the police station. As soon as Antonio disappeared through the gates that led up to the Intelligence Unit, Erin started talking to him.

"Just a few rules for you to follow," she said, clapping her hands together. "Rule one: do everything Sergeant Voight says. Rule two: do it _exactly _as he says. Rule three: make sure you have my back because I'm putting everything on the line for you."

"Ok," Jay replied, nodding his head. "Anything else?"

"Yes," Erin instantly replied, pulling a set of car keys out of her pocket. She jangled them in the air, giving him a no-nonsense look. "I drive the car." She then angled her head to the side, her wavy light and dark brown hair swung to the side. "Let's go, we're going back to the Academy today."

"Right behind you," Jay replied, following behind her as she headed out towards the street.

"Good," Erin replied, throwing him a smile over her shoulder.

He followed her to a sleek black SUV, and popped open the passenger seat door before climbing inside. He slammed the door shut behind him and pulled his seat belt across his chest as she got into the driver's seat. She buckled herself in and started up the car, pulling away from the precinct. Soft music started playing and Jay reached over to the tuning knob only to earn a slap to his hand.

"Ow!" he cried. He rubbed is stinging skin, giving her a curious look.

"Don't touch the radio," Erin replied, keeping her eyes on the road, her lips pursed just slightly.

"Yes, ma'am," jay drawled, earning a short laugh from her. The rest of the car ride was in silence and soon they pulled up in front of the Police Academy. Jay followed Erin inside and over to two men who were talking quietly amongst themselves until they spotted her and gave her warm smiles of greeting.

"Jay, this is Hank and Gus," she said, motioning towards the two men—who lifted their hands when their names were called. "They're going to be running us through training today; tactical, driving, take downs, some hand to hand combat, how to clear a room, everything."

Jay smiled to himself. He was pretty good with combat and take down, but it was shooting he thought he was great at. Even when he was going through the Academy he was praised on how well he shot. Not that he was cocky. He decided not to say anything about it; wanting his actions to speak to Voight better than any of his bragging could've done.

He knew about Sergeant Voight and the rumors of him being a dirty cop, and how he had even blackmailed a firefighter just to keep his son out of jail, but even then he still wanted to work underneath him. He knew he could learn a lot, especially after everything that happened with Arthur and the bar, Molly's. All in all, they both wanted the same thing, to keep the streets of Chicago clear of any danger.

"Great, let's get started," Jay said with a shrug of his shoulders, looking over in Erin's direction. She chuckled, her eyebrows shifting upwards but gave a shrug of her shoulders as well.

They moved through each course of training with Erin surprising Jay with how good of a shot she was. While at the shooting apparatus, they were both instructed to aim for both shoulders and the chin of the target in front of them. Three pops later, and he had done a pretty good job, but on the third shot, he barely missed the chin of his target.

"Where was it you wanted me to aim for?" Erin asked after putting holes in both shoulders of her target. She kept her stance steady, gun held up in front of her, but turned her head to look at Hank—who was evaluating her—over her shoulder.

"The chin," Hank replied.

"Ok," Erin said before squeezing the trigger of the gun in her hands, putting neat round hole in the center of the target's chin. Erin turned towards him with a grin.

Jay felt his jaw drop just slightly, impressed. It wasn't because he didn't think she could have the skills or experience to be a sharp shooter, he was impressed because she followed what Hank said so nonchalantly. As if she grew up around a shooting range.

"Nice shot," Hank commented, scribbling down on the clipboard in his hand.

"Yeah, nice shot," Jay agreed.

Erin shrugged. "I've done this once or twice," she replied.

"Well, you two are doing a great job," Gus spoke up, tucking his clipboard under his arm. "Voight should be happy. Let's move on to the driving course."

"Are you actually going to let me drive this time?" Jay asked as he fell into step beside Erin, making their way outside.

"Only if you think you can handle it," Erin replied, giving him a challenging look.

"Oh, I can handle it," Jay replied, returning her challenging look with a hiked brow. Erin snorted as if to say, _We'll see about that. _Jay smiled to himself as they made their way out onto the precision driving course.

There was nothing more adrenaline inducing than being at the helm of a police car, tires squealing, the smell of burning asphalt, and speeding down an open stretch of road, sirens wailing. His fingers twitched in anticipation of getting behind the wheel.

Unfortunately, his confidence was his downfall.

He had followed the directions he was given—sprint to the car, jump in, buckle, close the doors, put the car in reverse, swing the car around to the starting point, put the car into drive, speed down the open track before making a sharp left turn, swerve through cones, before coming to a full stop in front of a row of cones, park and get out guns drawn—up until the last few steps. As soon as he parked the car, he had jammed his thumb into the seatbelt release button, reached for the empty gun tucked into the waist band of his jeans and jumped out of the car…without putting it into park.

It took a few seconds of the car rolling past him for him to realize his mistake until he jumped right back into the car and quickly reached for the emergency handbrake, stopping the car in his tracks. His face immediately burned and he bowed his head for a brief moment. If he could, he would've curled up ino a ball on the floor of the car.

As he emerged, he could hear Hank and Gus chuckle as Erin declared that it was a good thing that no one was run over. She then turned towards him, running her fingers through her hair to say, "And that's why you can't drive."

About a month after Jay and Erin knowing each other and working together as partners, he had made the mistake of telling her that he felt like a house father, that he wasn't "down with that." He felt like he had something on her, had seen her file of her past crimes and wanted to use it against her. The minute he saw the twinkle in her eye and the curl of her lips as she thought back to that moment he knew he wasn't going to get anywhere with that subject, nor did he want to throw her past in her face.

She was a tough cookie and he could tell it was going to be hard to change her mind, but he was up for the challenge.

"So, when am I going to be able to get to drive?" he asked, falling into step beside her as they headed towards their assigned car, following in Voight's gait of determination.

Erin tilted her head back in a laugh. "That gets funnier every time you ask me that," she said, reaching up a hand to punch his shoulder. "You wish I'd let you drive."

Yes, he did.

* * *

**A/N: **I had fun writing this one. I got the inspiration for this one-shot from seeing the gif set of when Sophia and Jesse Lee were taking part in training day as well as an interview with Sophia about how well trained she was at a shooting range before getting the role on the show.

I was trying a new way to show a flashback in the middle of this one-shot without having to write italics to indicate it. Did that come across well or was it confusing?


End file.
